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YouTube announced on Wednesday that it would expand its “medical disinformation policies” with new guidelines on the subject of vaccines.
“Policy making around medical disinformation comes with inherent challenges and trade-offs. Scientific understanding evolves as new research emerges, and first-hand personal experience regularly plays a powerful role in online discourse, ”YouTube said in a blog post. “Vaccines, in particular, have been a source of heated debate over the years, despite constant advice from health authorities on their effectiveness. “
“Today, we are expanding our medical disinformation policies on YouTube with new guidelines on currently administered vaccines that are approved and confirmed as safe and effective by local health authorities and the WHO,” the giant Big Tech announced.
YouTube explained that they had previously deleted “over 130,000 videos” for violating their COVID-19 vaccination policies.
“Throughout this work, we have learned important lessons about how to design and implement nuanced medical disinformation policies at scale. By working closely with health authorities, we have sought to balance our commitment to an open platform with the need to remove blatant harmful content, ”YouTube continued. “We have regularly seen false claims about coronavirus vaccines turn into misinformation about vaccines in general, and we are now at a point where it is more important than ever to expand the work we started with COVID- 19 to other vaccines. “
YouTube then listed specific content that would violate its new policy standards.
“Specifically, content that falsely alleges that approved vaccines are dangerous and cause chronic health effects, asserts that vaccines do not reduce disease transmission or contraction, or contains incorrect information about the substances in vaccines will be phased out, ”YouTube announced. “This would include content that falsely says that approved vaccines cause autism, cancer or infertility, or that substances in vaccines can track those who receive them. Our policies not only cover specific routine vaccinations like measles or hepatitis B, but also apply to general vaccine statements.
YouTube also added that there are “important exceptions” to the new guidelines.
“Given the importance of public discussion and debate to the scientific process, we will continue to allow content on vaccine policies, new vaccine trials, and historic vaccine successes or failures on YouTube. Personal testimonials relating to vaccines will also be allowed, as long as the video does not violate other community guidelines, or the channel shows a model of promoting vaccine reluctance, ”YouTube added.
As part of the announcement, YouTube banned the accounts of many prominent anti-vaccine campaigners. The policy move also means YouTube is more aligned with its social media rivals Facebook and Twitter.
In February, Facebook announced that they plan to remove or downgrade posts that spread so-called “vaccine misinformation,” or include content that more generally discourages vaccinations in some cases. In March, Twitter followed suit, with users facing various forms of liability for posting what Twitter defines as “harmful disinformation.”
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